Saturday, January 31, 2009

Friday, January 30, 2009

I love downloading the camera after taking pictures of the American Crows that sometimes hang out in front of my house because images like this appear. If you don't agree with the angel idea, how about Las Vegas Showgirl Crow?

Thursday, January 29, 2009

If you've visited my Crowcentric blog (all things crow) you will have seen a posting about a pub and kitchen in Corona Del Mar, California, called The Crow Bar. I had a delightful dinner there. So I'm featuring their creative coasters as well as a lovely piece of etched stemware by Alone Larsen.

Monday, January 19, 2009

This negative-space crow was challenging and fun. I nabbed a paper towel from the ladies' room at a restaurant (it's cool, isn't it?) and thought I could just "draw" the crow with water and then tear it out. Not so fast Kemo Sabe. The water just wicked throught the paper at lightening speed--well outside the desired crow outline. I had to let it dry a little and call on a pair of tweezers for edge-plucking of the outline. It was fun.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

India Ink was one of my favorite mediums when I was a young kid. I always keep a bottle or two around. Claybord is also a versatile surface to work on so I got to do a little scratching on this crow after the ink dried.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

So I bought this nifty little tool at a scrapbooking store, that allows you to make a perforated line. I rolled it around the outline of a crow and then just tore it. You can see some of the little tufts left where the paper wasn't cut by the tool. Crafty crow!

Monday, January 12, 2009

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Sometimes when I use templates to carry ink in monoprinting, I don't clean it when I'm finished. Can you blame me? Look how gorgeous that green crow is. I have an old piece of plastic on my rusty tables outside that I used to carry the crow. Lifting slightly to light it from the back with the sun, all the minute scratches became part of the composition.

Friday, January 9, 2009

I placed a clean frosted Mylar template of a crow with extended wings on the surface of the water. You can see a few air bubbles that were trapped in the body area. The Mylar blocks the sun and creates the interesting shadow you see on the seat of the spa.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

I had trimmed this bird of paradise leaf into a smaller shape for the arrangement it was in. That had ended, and on the way to the green trash with it in hand, I found some scissors and called out the crow.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

I have long gathered random items created in factories that are undeclared symbols of our industrialized society. The corrugated cardboard circle with an off-center debossed ring just seemed to fit with the white crow.

Friday, January 2, 2009

Our roof slopes on either side of my studio deck. Warm and sunny in Southern California, so I thought, Why not try just using water through one of my stencils? The tile was so hot that it just soaked up the water. I figured I'd have to be ready quick with the camera.

The "test" left a lovely dried halo to enhance the outline and you can see one wet spot that hadn't yet been absorbed.

Reminded me of the reverse graffiti artists who use cleaning solutions through their stencils to leave their images on dirty city walls. Moose (Paul Curtis) has been cleaning the UK for about 10 years. Check it out: www.environmentalgraffiti.com